PRICE 




A LECTURE: 


SUBJECT REPUTATION. 


BY G. D. WOOTTON, 


A Member of the Bar, Richmond, Va. 


A GOOD NAME PREFERABLE TO RICHES. 


RICHMOND, VA.: 
1S78. 


























A LECTURE 




i 


SUBJECT REP UT ATI ON. 


X 

BY G. D. WOOTTON, o 

A Member of the Bar, Richmond, Va. 


A GOOD NAME PREFERABLE TO RICHES. 












* 


JDebicatcb 

TO 

Miss Ida A. Wootton, 

MY BEAUTIFUL AND ACCOMPLISHED NIECE, OF CHARLOTTE 

COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 

G. D. \V. 


Entered according to acts of Congress, in Hie yea\M878, 

BY G. D. WOOTTON, 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 






R E P U T A T ION. 


Respected A adience: 

The subject that I have the honor to present to you is 
by name at least familiar to all of us. You will please 
give me your strict and undivided attention from the be¬ 
ginning to the conclusion. Observe, to do justice to this 
subject, I shall, firstly, have to solicit your thoughts on 
the Unity of Divine and Human Reputations. Dis¬ 
courses on names, titles, characters, fame, &c., are almost 
innumerable, but we rarely hear singly and alone a lecture 
on reputation. To many of you it may appear at first 
that I take a strange view of it, but if you will consider 
my inductions, you will readily comprehend the meaning 
and intent. The origin of Divine and human reputations 
are coeval to life and language. All existences have had 
a beginning. If not, how could we have any knowledge 
of them? We have to revert to first causes; we shall 
have to deal in types, figures, emblems and symbols, and 
as there cannot be a shadow without a substance, we must 
consider these also. We take God as the originator of all 
things, visible and invisible, and repute Him as the Om¬ 
nipotent power, mysterious and incomprehensible, beyond 
finite minds to scan. Who made man? The answer comes 
directly, God made man in His own image, and imparted 
to him life. Who made woman ? The same power that 
created the one created the other, and the same God gave 



4 


them distinctive reputations and delegated them with power 
and authority to impress and stamp all of His creation, 
first with names and after names, reputations—thence fol¬ 
lowed good and bad reputations. Cain got his reputation 
as the first murderer in killing his brother Abel; after 
this tragedy the curse and bad reputation followed him 
wherever he went. Milton imagines that God gave Eve 
the office to give names to all the flowers and plants, and 
when she had to leave Paradise for her disobedience, with 
bitter regret poor Eve exclaims “ Must I leave thee, Para¬ 
dise? Oh! flowers that never will in other climates grow, 
which I bred up with tender hand from the first opening 
bud, and gave ye names, who shall rear you to the sun, 
or rank your tribes” and stamp them with reputations? 
Reputation is coequal in many respects to inspiration. We 
take Moses, whose history of the creation of man and all 
things, and we find that he received his reputation as a 
great counseller and law-giver directly from the mandate 
of the great God himself, and with wonder do we trace the 
origin of all names, and following them, reputations. The 
woman first violated the command of God, and in doing 
this she fell from her high estate and was stained for her 
disobedience, which brought days of sorrow and sadness 
upon her. Noah received his mighty reputation because 
he was just and righteous in his dealings with God and 
man too; from this great, good man, we follow the lineal 
descendants down to the multiplying and repeopling of all 
the earth, all descending from Adam, Noah Shem, Ham and 
Japheth, and we follow on and find noble peers rising in dig¬ 
nity and venerated regard above all men in their times—the 
noble, reputable patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, pe¬ 
culiar favorites of God and heaven—Enoch, Elijah, Joshua, 


5 


David, Solomon and many others of royal lineage, reputed 
and marked out for their piety, virtue and wisdom, as the 
peculiar instruments of Deity, the chosen agencies and 
powers of Providence. We read the history of that great 
flood, leaving signs and wonders of its reputed visitation, 
sweeping sin and the mighty giants from the face of the 
earth they had polluted. We see the wisdom of Noah in 
sending the beautiful, innocent, reputable little dove out 
of the ark to betoken the condition of the great waters 
over all of the earth the first, second and third time. The 
little inspired bird returned the second time with an olive 
leaf, the third time the little pet returned not. Noah then 
knew that the waters were abating, convincing him that 
the sweet little messenger had found a resting place for its 
feet. The reputation of Noah and the dove yields to this 
day the sweetest, richest perfume; cherished, sweet and 
precious, are their names through all generations, reputed 
as identified and ingrafted in the history of our great uni¬ 
verse; surviving in the memories of all enlightened nations; 
living fresh and,'green and never dying. We now come 
to the names, attributes and powers of the reputations of 
the universe—the impress of reputations, and the stamp 
of repute. The universe in God—God in the universe— 
God expressed in the universe—the universe expressing 
God. God in the repute of history. God in the repute of 
nature. The high character, the value and esteem, the 
honor and credit given persons and things by general opin¬ 
ion and public sentiment, harmonizing and agreeing on 
all of life, human and divine, on all agencies, acts, special, 
general and distinctive. Deputation is like property, it 
may be acquired, it may be inherited, like wealth it may 
be accumulated, it may be lost, it. may be stolen, it is an 

7 v tv 


6 


article subject to robbery, it may be abused, it may be pros¬ 
tituted, and so on. There is no existence without some 
repute or value. Nothing has a reputation, and what is 
nothing? It is naught, and that is all that we know about 
it, and yet we know that it is the spirit or matter of some¬ 
thing—it is strange, yet it is so. My coming views may 
perhaps seem strange, curious, unique and uncommon; but 
let me assure you they are none the less true. The repu¬ 
tation of the universe—the great naturalist will assist me 
now in my theme. How great, how vast the theme, ex¬ 
ceeding far the bound of human thought. We, with our 
little eyes see millions of worlds, with their attendant 
suns, moving around some common centre—gravitation 
strange beyond the powers of finite minds to scan. Can 
He, who, in the highest heavens sublime,enthroned in glory, 
guide these mighty, reputed orbs? Can he behold this 
little spot of earth lost midst the grandeur of the heavenly 
host? Can God bestow one thought on disreputable man? 
and docs He not weigh the reputations and value of all 
His works, holding them in the hollow of His hand. Turn 
man of ignorance and narrow views, your wildered sight 
from off these dazzling scenes—turn to thy reputed mother 
and trace her earthly wonders, who reputes 'paints , jmicils 
and dashes, with variegated hues, the lowly flower that 
decks the rippling stream, or gorgeously attires the lily- 
race; and gives soft showers and vivifying warmth, kind¬ 
ling within the embryo inert the little spark of life; un¬ 
seen by all save Him who gave and whose care preserves it. 
Who teaches, when this principle of life, thus animated, 
swells the germ within and bursts its tomb rising to light and 
air? Who teaches root and stem to find their places, each one 
to seek its proper element? Who reputes and gilds the in- 




7 


sect’s wing and leads it forth to feast on sweets and bask in 
sunny rays. None can the life of the name insect and plant 
give save God alone; He rules and watches all, scorns not 
the least of all His reputable works, much less man made in 
His image and stamped with His reputation, and destined 
to exist when yon brilliant worlds shall cease to be. Then 
how should man, rejoicing in his God, delight in His per¬ 
fections, shadowed forth in every little flower, branch and 
blade of grass, each opening bud and care-perfected seed 
is as a beautiful reputation, where we may read of God re¬ 
puted in all of His wondrous works. Milton says, He, 
who reigns monarch in heaven, till then, as one secure, sat 
on His throne upheld by old repute; Shakspeare says 
that the king was reputed a prince most prudent; Job: 
wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in 
His sight; David said lie was despised and of small repu¬ 
tation ; of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba said to him I heard 
of you by the hearing of the ear, but I only half estimated 
your reputation, since seeing you; St. Paul, second chap¬ 
ter of Gallatians, said he preached privately to Gentiles 
who were of reputation; St. Paul, second chapter Phillip- 
pians, says Christ made Himself of no reputation, and said 
in the same chapter, you must hold Epaphroditus and all 
such in reputation. 

We now come to the reputation of one of the most 
mysterious, marvellous, sublime, strange, beautiful per¬ 
sonages that was or ever will be reputed from time to 
eternity, according to the knowledge and lights which we 
have of him; the purest, sweetest, most precious name 
that ever fell from the mortal or immortal lips of man, 
inspired or not—a Man, a God, the immortal, the illus¬ 
trious, the embodiment of all divine and earthly power, 


8 


and all other, powers, united by links in the chain of all 
powers on earth or in the dwelling-place of an omipotent 
God ! The coming of this mighty Man and his mighty 
reputation was foreshadowed, foreshown and foretold for 
thousands of years, by prophets, priests and kings: this 
mighty Counsellor, this mighty Lawyer, this mighty 
Judge, this mighty Prince. The people were depraved 
and rotten with corruption; the world lay dying in sin ; 
some groaning for redemption from the curse. 

All of the human race were tainted as they are now. 

* 

A mediator was needed, a substitute must be found. He 
was this Mediator, this reputed Savior that had come; 
th is Man-God, this God-Man. Born in a stable at Beth¬ 
lehem, his birth hailed by legions of angels, whose reful¬ 
gent splendors and heavenly harmonies dazzle and astound 
the shepherds on Judea’s lonely hills; as a man cradled in 
a manger; as a God receiving the adoration and gifts of 
the Eastern Magi—lead to his lowly couch by a gleaming 
world of meteoric light; as a man wrapped in the deep 
sleep of the weary, in that frail tempest-tossed bark on 
Galilee’s lake; as a God calming the raging winds and 
lulling the billows to sleep with the omnipotent words, 
“ Peace, be still;” as a man pitying the fainting multitudes 
in the wilderness of De Capolis; as a God feeding the 
famishing multitudes with miracle-created bread and 
fishes; as a man weeping at the grave of Lazarus, his 
friend ; as a God commanding the dead to come forth, 
and restoring him to his rejoicing sisters; as a man paying 
tribute to Caesar; as a God compelling the fish of the 
sea to disgorge the needed coin ; as a man suffering hun¬ 
ger, thirst, weariness and abuse; as a God healing the 
sick, cleansing the lepers, casting out devils, restoring the 




9 

limbs of the halt and maimed, giving sight to the blind 
and hearing to the deaf, making the dumb to speak and 
raising the dead to life; as a man groaning in unutterable 
agony, and sweating great drops of blood beneath the 
dark olive trees of Gethsemanie’s garden ; as a God felling 
the armed rabble down to the earth by a look, and re¬ 
placing the ear of the high priest’s servant with a single 
touch; as a man bleeding, gasping, praying and dying 
upon calvary’s cross; as a God bestowing Paradise upon 
the repentant thief at his side; as a man pouring out his 
anguished soul in that piteous cry, “ My God, why hast 
Thou forsaken me?” as a God praying for his muderers— 
“Forgive them, they know not what they do;” as a man 
meekly bowing his head and breathing out his gentle, 
sweet spirit in that redemption assurance, murmur! 
It is finished ! As a God all nature was convulsed with 
mortal terror at his death. The sun hid behind a pall of 
funeral woe; the solid earth trembled to its centre with 
mysterious awe; the very graves yawned forth their 
sheeted tenants, and the vail of Judea’s proud temple rent 
in twain, to show that it no longer screens the holy of 
holies; as a man buried in Joseph’s tomb; as a God 
bursting the bars of death on the morning of the self- 
appointing third day, and rising triumphant over hell and 
the grave, with a glory which prostrated even the Pagan 
soldiery about his sepulchre as dead men upon the ground ; 
as a man eating a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb 
with his doubting disciples, and permitted Thomas to 
thrust his fingers into the nail prints in his hands and the 
cruel hole torn by a Roman spear in his side. lie passed 
sentence as a judge on a frail woman, telling her to “Go 
and sin no more;” as a judge he reasoned on a divorce 
2 



/ 


case; as a man of reputation he appeared as a general, 
and a special pleader; as a man he spoke as an orator; as 
a man he reasoned as a philosopher; as a man he pleaded 
as a Demosthenes or Cicero; as a man he was slaughtered 
as a lamb, but opened not his mouth; as a God he was 
reputed as swept up in a cloud from the gaze of his adoring 
followers to the right hand of his Father to plead for a 
world dying in its sins. 

We now take a slight view of Joshua and Alexander 


the Great—their reputations as warriors. With a hand¬ 
ful of men, comparatively, Joshua subdued thirty-one 
kingdoms at a small loss. Joshua owed his success in 
arms to supernatural power. His men were great 
warriors, and knew how to take advantage of and slay 
their enemies. Ilis prominent quality as a great leader 
was his high courage, which stamped his reputation in¬ 
delibly on the pages of ancient and modern history. It 
is said that Alexander conquered the w r orld, and is reputed 
as having wept for more worlds to conquer. His name 
spread a terror and fear throughout all that Eastern coun¬ 
try. The reputation of Napoleon Bonaparte, carrying 
with it in his day an irresistible influence and a dreadful 
power. This same man, with a mysterious reputation 
drawn from his character as a military despot; this incom¬ 
prehensible genius, this man of destiny, this man in his 
day possessing spiritual ubiquity over all that country; 
this creature, with mad ambition, disregarded the highest 

' ' O o J 


purest and most potent 
lowly followers of rel 


stations of dignity, the meek and 
igion, piety and virtue. Popes, 
kings, spiritual or temporal powers, were as naught in the 
exercise of his power and thirst for dominion.' II is name 
without a model, his character without an equal and with- 



11 


out a shadow, his fall, like his reputation and life, con¬ 
founded all speculation. His career, his life is like unto 

ns and all the world a dream. None can tell why or 

•/ 

how he was awakened from the revery. Such is a pencil 
stroke of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first emperor of France. 
This man did much evil; he also did much good. The 
world and the people were taught by him that there is no 
despotism so stupendous, against which they have not a 
resource, and to those who would rise upon the ruins of both 
he was a living lesson that if ambition could raise them from 
the lowest station it also can prostrate them from the highest. 
It is futile for me in this glance to enumerate the deeds 
that gave Napoleon Bonaparte his mighty reputation, and 
world renowned fame. His natural genius was for military 
glory, no matter how he won it. 

Public sentiment and opinions of persons openly ex¬ 
pressed constitutes and are the principal component parts 
of reputation. A man of good reputation is well received 
and welcomed wherever he £oes. It is a freedom and a 
passport; it is confidence and a key to the most sacred and 
the most public channels of society. This class of men 
are sought after, thought of and received with joy and 
gladness. Children and even the animal creation seem to 
recognize them by instinct. All are glad to see them, and 
want to make their acquaintance. They are appreciated 
and esteemed generally by all good men, and acknowledged 
by bad men, too. The man in bad repute is avoided and 
suspected. His seat is generally inconvenient—no one sits 
in it, his manner is not appreciated, is not recognized. 
No courtesy is shown him. His name is only mentioned 
reproachfully, if mentioned at all. The good will leave 
the same side of the street and cross over to avoid him. 


12 


Men of bad repute arc as contagious sometimes as the 
smallpox. The good always have some excuse to get rid 
of them when they foist themselves on certain persons, 
and sympathy and humanity are required to receive them. 
They are sent to bed as soon as they get something to eat, 
and a watch is put over all of their movements. The 
family generally give them an early breakfast, and feign 
some excuse, as that they are sorry that they have to leave 
home early this morning; that he or they must please ex¬ 
cuse them, and they drive a short distance and return, 
saying “I trust that you will not call again until you have 
a better reputation.” 

4 wit has said a woman and a man of good reputation 
are generally respected by all gradations, but the man and 
woman with bad reputations are only regarded by some of 
the darkened nations. I clipped not long since from one 
of our city papers a curious story, taken from the Burling¬ 
ton Hawk Bye, that has some ingenuity in it as well as 
wit. It was reported soon after the war commenced be¬ 
tween Russia and Turkey. 

SOLDIER, REST. 

There was a Russian came over the sea, 

Just when the war was growing hot, 

And his'name it was Tjalikavakarce- 
Karindobrolikanahndarot- 
Schihka-Dirova- 
Ivarditzstova- 
Sanalik- 
Danerik- 
Naragohoot. 

A Turk was standing upon the shore, 

Right where the terrible Russian crossed. 

And he cried, “Bisraillah ! Fin Ab El Kor- 
Bazaroukiigonautosgoboss- 
Getunpavadi- 
Kligesk-Kosaladji- 
Grivino- 
Blivido- 
Jenlzodosk !” 


13 


So they stood, like brave men, long and well. 

And they called each other their proper names. 

Till the lock-jaw seized them, and where they fell 
They buried them both by the Irdosholames- 
Kalatalustchuk- 
Mischtaribustceup- 
Bulgari- 
Dulbary- 
Sagharimainz. 

“ Bury me dar, ah ha ! ha ! ” 

.No wonder they fell dead ! Their reputation, based 

upon their long names, killed them, as it does many who 

strain themselves to death for it. This bauble, as it is 

called bv some—as much bauble as it is—all should like 
•/ 

to have it. A man by the name of Popkins, as the story 
goes, asked Miss Julia Hopkins to marry him. Miss 
Julia had very long Christian names, including all the 
names of her family for generations, as I read many years 
ago. So Popkins said to Hopkins, “Miss Julia, you are 
Hopkins now, but will you be Mrs. Julia Jane Amelia 
Ann Matilda Polly Jennie Tomie Johnie Sarnie Bobie 
Josie Charlie Thundy* Lightny Popkins;” and she 
brought a long sigh and groaned, and said, “Mr. Popkins, 
I will;” and she gaped and she died, and she was buried 
in Manchester in mud and mire. In the oriental countries, 
we find those long names more frequent than in America. 
They are frequently inherited, and without them they are 
less distinguished. Their reputations are based upon their 
frightful long names, peculiar to them, and they are dis¬ 
tinguished bv them. A rose bv the name of thorn I 
think would smell just as sweet. Reputations arise from 
many different causes, too numerous to mention. Acts of 
men may be forgotten, but they endure through all time. 
Men known for their virtue, piety, wisdom and justice, 
have those qualities impressed and stamped upon them. 


14 


See the man of truth holding the scales of justice. There 
he is, sitting reputable, expressing in his countenance the 
majesty and dignity of nations. Here stands the true 
Statesmen, the proud Patriot in the Senate chamber, on the 
rostrum or in the field, pleading for right and truth, with 
voice so clear, argument so strong and truth so powerful, 
that makes the Despot quake with fear and tremble on his 
throne. His this and such as these that inscribes in golden 
emblems their reputations on the unfurled banners of the 
winds*and the worlds. His virtue and truth that lifts 
men’s reputations, as ministers of God to man,.above all 
others. What has given Moody and W. S. Rainsford, one 
of which recently appeared in our midst, their splendid 
reputations? It is declaring the love and power of God 
to their fellow creatures in the proper manner, preaching 
the gospel of God and Christ with earnest simplicity. 
They draw their inspiratian by prayer and study from the 
mysterious Word of God. His this which has here in 
our midst, in point of reputation, made many of our men 
the noble peers of our times. We pass on from many of 
the most wonderful men and personages named previously 
of such vast reputations, divine and human, to our own 
illustrious, noble characters, and I feel a hesitancy, for the 
want of conception and historical facts, the want and defi¬ 
ciency of potent language, to express clearly my reflections 
and ideas; yet I resolve not to be overcome. Those men, 
noble characters long dead and gone, whose bodies are 
identified with the cold, cold clay, whose reputations when 
living reared their stately heads above surrounding: eleva- 
tions, like fall Trees in vast forests, impress us with the 
former existence of our statesmen, warriors, philosophers 
and philanthropists, representing and symbolical of their 


15 


vast reputations, towering towards the very heavens, lift¬ 
ing their limbs and extending their branches and their in- 
fiuence over the undergrowth, figurative of and shadowing 
forth protective power, representing great and mighty 
commanders and their authority. Let us go back a moment 
to former days and note some of our noble leaders, whose 
reputations, like the constellations of the heavens with all 
of their brilliant satellites, cast a lustre and a halo of glory 
throughout our vast universe! Who, though dead, yet 
liveth, enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen; whose 
reputations bear their characters and deeds in our never- 
dying memories; whose geniuses and virtues are engraven 
on the very f^ce of nature and art. Look on yon monu¬ 
ment, and see the impress of the reputed Father of our 
Country, George Washington, figuratively clothed in the 
habiliments of war, mounted on hi* noble steed, expres¬ 
sive of an approaching battle; his attitude symbolical of 
command; his arm stretched out to save, with his finger 
pointing to victory or death ! His war horse gnawing the 
bit, foaming at his mouth, his tongue ouf, as if ready to 
lick the very blood of his master’s enemies, pawing for the 
charge; neck clothed with thunder, snorting and breathing 
fire from his nostrils, restless for the voice of his master to 
‘‘Charge them, soldiers, charge with all your chivalry.’ 7 
There stands the impress of immortal reputations—Wash¬ 
ington, Mason, Jefferson, Nelson, Marshall, with justice 
inscribed—Lewis, Henry (declaring for liberty or death !)— 
John C. Calhoun, Henry A. Wise, Governor Taswell and 
Andrew Jackson, and hundreds of others, brought from 
the State library, in imagination,—there standing in regu¬ 
lar regal lines with them. Though unseen, we lift them in 
thought, and grandly and beautifully blend a great throng 


t 


16 


together, great, illustrious and noble mementoes, symboli¬ 
cal of stupendous Reputations and Names—classical names, 
connected with historical grounds and fields of blood and 
carnage, Colonial times, Valley Forge, Point Pleasant, Stony 
Point, with the inscription of justice; Great Bridge, Fi¬ 
nance, Saratoga, Yorktown, Independence, King’s Moun¬ 
tain, Princeton, Bill of Rights, Guilford Courthouse, 
Bunker Hill, Revolution, Trenton, Eutaw Springs, and, I 
will add in my imagination, Big Bethel, Seven Pines, Ma¬ 
nassas, Bull Run, Chaneellorsville, the Wilderness, and 
my audience can bring up the others, and cluster around 
and group them together those proud classical mementoes. 
Images and historical reminiscences, and emblems which 
are richly fraught with meaning and pregnant with great 
historical facts of reputed glory, fame and renown,—those 
impressions revive iiT our memories and in our hearts, 
their once grand, living, glorious reputation, living green 
forever in the memories and hearts of past and present 
generations. Mark ! Although no proud monument is 
yet erected to our late dead chief, whose repute and whose 
virtues are engraven on the enduring tablets of our 
memories and in our hearts, yes, here, here, his image 
still shall rest, until our hearts shall cease to beat. His 
faults, written in sand, yet his monument reared in our 
affections, tall and majestic in his bearing, meek and mild 
in his aspect—yes, here it is erected, on a foundation of 
pure gold, supported by choice silver,—Robert Lee— 
a reputation sweet and precious as fhe dewy morn. Un¬ 
like the reputations of Alexander, Bonaparte and the U. S. 
G., he sought and prayed for the liberty of his country 
and the freedom of his people, instead of dominion, lust, 
power, blood, plunder and robbery. Robert Lee lived 


17 

beloved, revered and esteemed, and died deeply lamented 
by all who knew him. Peace be to bis ashes, and may the 
turf be green forever o’er his honored grave. And right 
here in this connection let my fingers cease to hold the pen 
ere I forget the sweet and precious reputations made by 
our lovely Southern ladies during the late bloody war. 
Here they are in our dear native land, flourishing and 
abounding like their fit symbols, the stately, unsullied 
Magnolias, the women of the South. What visions of all 
that is purest and noblest, holiest and best in human guise, 
rise before us at the mere mention of those five magic 
words—the women of the South. The one redeeming fea¬ 
ture of this sin-cursed earth, the one remaining trace of 
Eden and Heaven in a wilderness of thistles and thorns, 
the one soft ray of celestial light that illuminated even 
the blackness of our years of horror, devastation and 
death, and that still casts a lingering halo of hope, inspir¬ 
ing radience upon the dark clouds that overhang our 
future. Talk to us of the Heroines of ancient days, 
and with a heart glowing with honest pride, we point 
you to the ten thousands in our own Southern homes. 
Talk to us of ancient Mothers and oriental matrons, and 
with a swelling soul we point you in Virginia and South 
Carolina, in Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri and 
other Southern States, to hosts of mothers more devoted, 
self-sacrificing, brave and unmurmuring than all of the 
ancient dames of song and story;—to maidens more high- 
souled and heroic than the maids of an ancient city (Car¬ 
tilage I think it was) who stripped their tresses to string 
their lovers’ bows. Take our ladies where you will, at 
home or abroad, in peace or in war, and they stand peer¬ 
less in the annals of the world,—gentle, tender, loving, 
3 


\ 


18 


confiding, generous, refined and pure as the snowy lilies of 
the valley,—no strong-minded, weak-moraled women, fe¬ 
male-rights, bawling she lecturing politician, &c. Our 
women, pure and without reproach, ruling in love and 
gentleness, rearing high the standard of religion and mo¬ 
rality, have preserved our atmosphere comparatively free 
from the conlagion and impurity which has infected many 
other regions in America. See our beloved ladies in those 
dark and terrible hours, when the hearts of brave men 
grew faint and faltered, wives, mothers, daughters and 
sweethearts of heroes, their heroism, their ardor, exalted 
danger, daring privation, enduring devotion was matchless, 
unparallelled, incomparable in all of the realms of history, 
poetry and romance. Girding the sword on their fathers, 
brothers and lovers, and whilst their own dear hearts were 
breaking with anguish, smothering their tears, stifling 
their sobs, and sending forth their loved ones laden with 
prayers and blessings to the fields of glory or death, ap¬ 
plauding the strong and bold, strengthening the weak, 
cheering the despondent, emboldening the timid, and 
shaming the laggard, tearing up their carpets for blankets 
for their soldiers, parting with their jewels to build gun¬ 
boats and purchase cannon, melting the very bells of their 
churches into artillery, stripping the cushions from their 
pews to make couches for the wounded; gliding like angels 
of mercy, through the long, sad wards of hospitals, casting 
a tinge of Heaven’s own sun-light on every humble cot 
they passed, smoothing the fevered brow, bathing the shat¬ 
tered limbs, and pillowing on their bosoms the heads of 
their ragged, bleeding defenders. Pure as the diamond 
and sweeter than honey, their spotless reputations! Was 
there ever a spectacle more sublime? Is it any. wonder that 


19 


every true Southern man, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, * 
is an idolater and adorer, a worshipper of our glorious 
country women? He would be less than human if it were 
not so. In 1850 there appeared in our city an illustrious 
lady, whose reputation was as brilliant as the purest dia¬ 
mond, and whose character was as pure as the unsullied 
snow. The reputation of Jenny Lind spread like elec¬ 
tricity all over our continent, as a sweet, charming bird 
from the far off land of Sweden. A precious, sweet and 
doubly sweet vocalist! dShe filled all hearts who heard 
her with wonder and delight. Here, and wherever she 
went, she strung many scalps of the handsome and brave to 
her belt, as trophies of her glorious career. She was a living 
prodigy and wonder of the world. She was queen of all 
she surveyed,—grave Senators and giddy boys, gray and 
white-headed generals and gentlemen, frisky counter¬ 
hoppers, and all who saw and heard her, fell before the 
resistless magic of her charms and songs. Her fascinating 
power as a vocalist surpassed any human language to ex¬ 
press; her sweet, benevolent reputation spread a charm 
and a fragrance wherever she appeared. To those who 
saw and heard her ? twas all rapture through and through. 
Her reputation was as fragrant and sweet-scented as the 
choicest selection of an odoriferous bed of flowers. Her 
voice was a magical enigma, and her reputation as a talis- 
manic power. She certainly had an enviable reputation. 

I met with her in New Orleans. Old Barnum made some 
excuse for not taking me in her presence and introducing 
us, and yet this prodigy was but a fair skin, little Swedish 
woman. She was good enough to give the Orphan Asy¬ 
lum here one hundred dollars. 


/ 


I don’t know who is the author of the following:— 

While the tempest was raging, and the sea running high, 

The voice of fair Jennie was heard in a sigh, 

As she thought to herself, though calm and resigned, 

My voice is potential in raising the wind ; 

But that it now, with the power was blessed 
To stay its wild fury and sing it to rest. 

Effsoons! they heard a most melodious sound of all 
that might delight a dainty ear—such as at once not on 
living ground, save in Paradise, be heard elsewhere. Right 
hard it was for Wight, which did it hear, to read what 
manner of music that might be, for all that pleasing is 
to listening ear, was there consorted in harmony. 

Park Benjamin is the author of the following: 

Thanks—The Yoglein. 

1 heard you sing, oh ! Northern bird, 

The South’s artistic strain— 

And fancied that the heaven of sound, 

Fell in melodious rain. 

I listened till the raptured sense, 

To wild amazement grew, 

Wandering if nightengales, indeed, 

Could sing as sweet as you. 

But when you sung your native song. 

I heard the gushing rills, 

And felt the bracing winds that blow, 

Among your Swedish hills. 

I sat no more in Tripler ball, 

But high amongst the rocks, 

And saw the herdsmen as they cried 
Kesponsive to their flocks. 

And huah ! liuah ! to my ear, 

By distance made more sweet, 

Came echoed back till the sounds 
Were gurgling at my feet. 

And so I said a happy land, 

The land of Swede must be, 

Where every gale that wafts her clouds 
Is full of melody. 


21 


s 


Your singing ceased, oh ! Swedish bird, 
Yet still the herdsman calls 
Went floating through the frescoed forms, 
That bent o’er Tripler hall. 

Methought how wonder grows to hear 
Italias strains of art, 

But nature’s simple music speaks 
A language to the heart. 


And following Lind was another bird—Lola Montez— 
whose reputation was a theme of talk from the Indus to 
the shores of the Pacific. She admired John C. Calhoun 
and purchased his life. ’Twas said that Lola sung into 
the affections, and sucked the pockets deeply of many con¬ 
gressmen and officers about Washington. The Atlantic 
ocean floated over on our shores another illustrious charac¬ 
ter—the Prince of Wales, with a royal name almost as 
long as the Mississippi river. When I undertook to pro¬ 
nounce all of his name I had to stop and catch my breath, 
and call him Albert Vic’s son, who, if he lives and his 
mother ever dies, will be reputed King of England. What 
a fuss he made! What multitudes rushed everywhere he 
went to get a peep at him! This little man, because he 
was reputed a prince, and the people had heard of but 
never seen one before! It was remarked that he looked 
like one darned Dutchman. Ilis princely reputation in¬ 
spired the greatest popular curiosity, when poor Albert 
could only say “A worm am I, yet spirit in my flight, 
strangely constructed by some plastic sire whose name is 
God, the Omnipotent light, transporting me back to Bri¬ 
tannia’s lyre.” He was reputed after his return as licen¬ 
tious and vile. 

And here is a literary character—Thackery—who richly 
deserved his high reputation, as a genius and a lecturer- 
I heard him, and I think that he had the most happy, fas- 




22 


cinsiting delivery of any man I ever heard. A fine, splen¬ 
did looking man, with a beautiful head of hair, almost 
white, and a clear, pink complexion. Thackery and 
Dickens for years were a constant theme of conversations, 
and their writings admired and sought after. We pass on 
now to a few ludicrous reputations— 

When in Paradise Adam sleeping laid. 

Woman from ont his side was made. 

Poor Adam, father of all our woes. 

Thy first sound sleep became thy last repose. 

We sublimely array before you now some of the illus¬ 
trious, stately, great sheroes—as a little boy calls them. 
The little fellow said to his mama: “Ma, wan’t Alexan¬ 
der a hero?” “Yes, my son.” “ Well, then, ma, wasn’t 
Mrs. Alexander a shero ? ” That stumped the old lady. 
Those stately women, whose reputations have been heralded 
Through all of our newpapers South as champions of 
women’s rights—sweet darlings—Miss Susan Anthony, 
Miss Phoebe Cousins, Miss Anna Dickinson, Miss Dina 
Revels, Miss Lucy Stone, Miss Hattie Byron Stowe, Miss 
Major-General Brigadier-Colonel Mary Walker, Wendell 
Philips and Parker Pillsberry. Hear them shrieking on 
the awful dilemma and state of our country! Man is no 
more capable of domineering and reigning over us than 
we are over them ; we are kept too much under their 
thumbs as menials; \^e wont stand it, masculine tyrants, 
brutal usurpers!! Yes, they ever will prescribe and con¬ 
fine us in pent-up modesty and obscure reserve, and the 
rascals have the impudence to tell us that we are the weaker 
vessels. That is a mistake in the printer. It should read 
that we are the man-weman and strongest vessels. We 
don’t care if Eve did eat that apple wnicli they say made 
them superior to ns. Our mighty power made Old Adam, 


23 


knuckle and eat apples, too. Now, I tell you we are a 
superior race, we are. We have more power and influence 
in our little bit of fingers than they have in their great 
brawny fist. Yes, we cause more duels, murders, suicides, 
distractions and untimely deaths than anything else in this 
mannish world. Yes, and they know that we are a constant 
theme of song, prose and poetry, too! that all the world 
sing of us; that forums ring of us, and the brutes some¬ 
times get lammed for us, and sometimes doubly damned 
for us, too,—and I now tell you that the time is not far distant 
that all things will be reversed, and then we will wear fine 
broad-cloth breeches, and these tyrant men shan’t wear 
anything but cheap cotton calico. Down with them and 
up us! Political men are corrupt, and have debased and 
demoralized our American people. What can save us? 
What is the antidote for all those direful ills ? Hark ! 
Hear ! Female suffrage, woman’s rights ! And here they 
come, vinegar-faced and sour as crab apples, scores of 
scanty-skirted old gals, each with her bonnet reared back 
defiantly on the gable end of her waterfall; her hawk’s 
bill proboscis elevated at an angle of 160 degrees in the 
shade, with supreme disgust at the insolence and injustice 
of man. A roll of manuscripts, memorials, petitions and 
denunciations of masculine brutes in her left hand, and a 
fady-blue cotton umbrella grasped beligerently in her 
right, and they shriek, in tympanium splitting chorus: 
Woman’s rights !! the purifying and ennobling of the bal¬ 
lot box by woman’s hallowing influences, and they call on 
us and all true knights to help them to redeem, regenerate 
and disenthrall our republic, our hemisphere, and the 
world ; to right all wrongs, and to sweep away all sins and 
iniquities, by vindicating the cause of oppressed and de- 


24 


fenceless hoop -skirtclom !! In tones of fire and pathos, 
thunder and lightning, they urge us to join the grand 
army of school inarms, and stand strong for a new revo¬ 
lution. In earnest, thrilling language, they invoke us to 
gird up our loins with the broad axe of truth; turn down 
a bread-bowl over our pates for a helmet; buckle on a 
tea-tray, a square yard of cotton batting and a pair of 
patent palpitators for a breast-plate; clasp a rose colored 
garter around our throat as an amulet; grasp a Faber No. 
2 for a lance; strap on a panier for a haversack ; behind 
a side-saddle of mutton mount a clothes-horse with bridle 
reins of Valencienes; a Dolly Varden sweat-cloth, and 
guipure crupper ! and shouting in a voice of breeches-split- 
ting thunder, “down with masculine tyranny, and let us 
sally forth like brave gals, a colossal Don Quixote, to bat¬ 
tle long and well for woman’s rights !! ” Now, bless your 
sweet souls, we should like to do it; but we tell you, in 
the name of Madam Eve, that when we get our rights we 
shall be disposed to help you get yours. Now we think 
that your sphere is not on the public arena. Franchise, 
hustings, elections, riots, big spechees, big drunks, for men 
first—for women afterwards, if they want them. What 
are such reputations but notorious burlesques on the pure 
and high reputations of American ladies? No, reputation is 
like a good education which gives human life its currency, 
gives dignity and honor to its rightful possessor, and it is a 
companion which no misfortune can long depress—no clime 
destroy—no enemy alienate—no despotism enslave. At 
home a friend—abroad an introduction—in solitude a 
solace—in society an ornament. They facinate, capture 
and charm ; they develop the genuis of man like the 
shining of the sun. Without them obscurity hovers over 


25 


i 


man,—a slave, a reasoning savage, vascillating between 
the dignity of an intelligence derived from God and the 
degredation of passions participated with beasts. Poets 
hive sung them, philosophers have adored them, forums 
hive rung of and died for them. The value of a good 
reputation. Who can price a good reputation, that impress 
which stamps us and gives our human dross its currency? 
Without it we stand despised, debased, depreciated. When 
injured it is hard to repair—when lost it is hard to re¬ 
deem. Truly does the great philosopher of poetry esteem 
this world’s wealth as trash in comparison to it. Genius 
says he who steals my lucre steals trash, but he who robs 
me of my good reputation takes my all and leaveth 
me poor indeed. Without it gold has no value, birth 
no distinction, station no dignity, beauty no charm, age 
no reverence, or should I not rather say every treasure im¬ 
poverishes, every dignity degrades, every grace deforms, 
and all tlie arts, the decorations and accomplishments of 
life stand like the beacon blaze upon a rock, warning the 
world that its approach is danger, that its contact is death. 
The wretch without it is under eternal quarantine. £so 
friend to greet him, no home to harbor him, no one to pro¬ 
tect him. The voyage of his life becomes a joyless peril, 
and in the midst all ambition can achieve, avarice, amass 
or rapacity plunder, he tosses on the surge a buoyant pes¬ 
tilent. ’Tis this (reputation) which nerves the arm of the 
patriot to save his country; ’tis this which lights the 
lamp of the philosopher to amend man ; which, if it does 
not inspire, will yet invigorate the martyr to merit im¬ 
mortality; which, when one’s world’s agony is passed, 
and the glory of another is dawning, will prompt the 

prophet in his chariot of fire and his vision of heaven, to 

4 


I 


26 

bequeath to man the mantle of his memory : Oh imperial ! 
Oh royal! Oh divine! Oh! delightful legacy of a spotless 
reputation ! Rich is its inheritance! pious the example it 
testifies; precious, pureand imperishable the hope it inspires • 
Can there be a more atrocious crime than to filch from its 
possessor this great benefit, to rob society of its charm and 
solitude of its solace ! Not only to outlaw life, but to 
attaint death itself, converting the very grave, the last re¬ 
fuge and resting place of the poor sufferer, into a spot of' 
infamy and shame. There are few crimes that exceeds its 
enormity—few crimes beyond it. You may plunder my 
property; you take from me that which may be re¬ 
paired by time; you wound my person, medicine may 
heal and cure me, but how can you build up or repair a 
ruined reputation? What medicines have virtue over the 
wounds of envy, hate, malice, calumny and slander. “Curse 
the tongue from whence slanderous rumors rise, like the vi- 
parous adders drop distills her venom, her poison withering 
friendships, faith turning loves favor”—“’Twas slander 
filled her mouth—slander! that foulest whelp of sin.' 
What riches can redeem the bankrupt fame ? What power 
can blanch the sullied snow of character? Can there be 
an injury more deadly? Can there be a crime more 
cruel than to rob a person of this jewel ? It is with¬ 
out remedy; it is without evasion; it is without anti¬ 
dote. Those reptiles are ever on the watch, from the 
fascination of their poisonous eyes no vigilance can escape; 
from the venom of their fangs nq remedy ean recover. 
They have no enjoyment but crime; they have no prey 
but virtue; they have no interval from the restlessness of 
their malice, save when bloated with their victims; they 
grovel to disgorge them at the withered shrine where envy 


27 


idol izes her own infirmities. Under such a visitation how 
dreadful would be the destiny of the virtuous, wise and 
good, if the Providence of our laws had not given us the 
power, as I trust that he has the principle, to bruise the 
heads of the serpents and to crush and crumble the altar 
of their idolatry. 

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to intro¬ 
duce to you a character which is no stranger in our midst— 
King Monarch Emperor Prince Viparous Upas Alcahol— 
who has all sorts of a reputation for good and evil too, 

Good for State to ring Moffet’s punch bell 
Evil to ring many akiting to hell. 

Why is it that we, as a reputable people to-day. 

Are now nearly bankrupt, our debts eannot pay? 

That political parties are both a disgrace; 

That honest men cannot in office have place? 

’Tis because you have said by your votes, don’t you think, 

Give us license that all may have whiskey to drink. 

And why is it that newspaper columns are filled 
With accounts which shock every heart with a thrill? 

Why has that murderer taken a life? 

Why that husband beat out the brains of his wife? 

Why homes filled with sorrow and wo? do you think 
Because somebody has had too much whiskey to drink? 

This notorious Monster, ever red with the fires of hell, 
and bending under the crimes of earth, erects his murder¬ 
ous divinity upon a throne of skulls, and exultingly feeds 
upon his brother’s blood to satiate the cannibal appetite of 
his drunken depravity! How many! oh! how many of 
our noble, generous citizens of the brightest capacities, in¬ 
tellects and geniuses, have fallen victims to this disrepu¬ 
table, hideous monster—his name is Demon! 


/ 


28 


God reputed in all His works. 

Oh ! God, from non-existence Thou didst call 
First chaos, then*all creation. From Thee 
Eternity took its boundless name—all 
Things created came from Thee : Harmony 
Life, light, bliss, Thou art the origin—thine 
All glory is, for Thou dost yet create ! 

Thy vivid rays inspire all space divine, 

Thou God of life, sustaining potentate. 

Thy arms the boundless universe surround, 

Sustained by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath. 
Thou all creation in thy chains hath bound. 

And strangely sewn the seeds of life and death. 
As sparks ascending in the nitrous blaze, 

So sun, moon and stars sprang from Thee ; 

And as those orbs extend their fulgent rays, 

Like floods of silver we thy glory see. 

Unnumbered worlds created by thy hand, 

Wind their vast course through the blue abyss— 
Adore thy power, obey thy dread command. 
Teeming with life and all complete with bliss. 
What are their names? Orbs of Celestial light, 

A golden multitude of brilliant streams, 

Tapers of purest air in lustre bright. 

Supernal suns in all their splendid beams. 

The stern commission of thy voice be still. 

The lightnings thunder with terrific sheen 
The bounding oeean and the flowing rill, 

Declare thy glory, though a God unseen. 

The strange construction of the creature man, 

All grades of life through creation run, 

Confirm thy wisdom in its God-like plan, 

And prove thy nature and thy name are one. 





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